Three Things that Change when You “Get” Safety

One of the best feelings in life is the moment something clicks for us. It's the instant we first begin to recognize the subtle complexities and patterns of a skill we've been seeking, whether it's the rhyming cadence of an algebraic formula or the back and forth muscle memory of riding a bike. Suddenly, something that seemed so mysterious and unattainable begins to take a recognizable shape. We are no longer outsiders, but learners. This moment is the first stage of mastery.

Safety leadership is no less experiential. Hexion CEO Craig Morrison says that 'getting' safety includes not just understanding the importance of it, but also having a willingness to personally invest yourself in the process. 'It is not just a topic for the workplace but is also equally applicable in our personal lives.'

The goals of safety can seem counterintuitive to anyone trained in achieving profit and productivity. That's why it's helpful to look at some of the things that do change as leaders begin to 'get' safety. There are three things that start to look and feel different:

Your locus of control. When you're new to safety, success and goals are typically dictated by the organization, outside forces in regulatory agencies, boards, public opinion, and so on. While external standards and drivers can be a useful starting point, they don't help you in the place where good intentions meet conflicting demands, limited resources and changing exposure. As you learn the language of safety and cultivate a personal value for it, you're rewarded with an internal compass that helps you navigate uncertainty. Safety activities are no longer focused on meeting the demands of external forces, which are impossible to control. Instead, safety becomes a part of what you are. Safety is something your values drive you to do.

The coherence between safety and everything else. In safety, the ultimate goal is that nothing happens, that things proceed as they are intended with no deviation and subsequent harm to anyone in the process. While an experienced leader will tell you that it takes a lot (e.g., engagement, operational reliability, discipline) to achieve the 'nothing happening' the absence of immediate results can make it seem like there's nothing in common between safety activities and everything else. As you begin to advance in safety disciplines, however, you'll notice that safety is the key to your organizations ability to learn and achieve 'behavioral reliability' a critical component necessary for any organization to meet their goals. Safety practices complement other business functions; business and safety cohere. As one executive put it, 'We suddenly realized that safety is the first line of defense in our ability to deliver on any promise.'

Your 'agency' with respect to safety. How you act on behalf of safety changes dramatically as you gain fluency. At first, leading safety can feel like fighting fires: you respond as things go wrong. As you develop fluency with safety, however, you begin to recognize not just patterns of exposure, but also subtle changes in the operational functions that affect how exposure is managed. As you progress in safety, you move from a passive state, in which you respond as injuries and their contributing factors 'just happen', to an active state of being 'deliberate' where you seek out opportunities for optimization and improvement across a wide range of factors.

The transition from supporting safety to 'getting it' is a learning process that works from the outside in. The more proficient we become at influencing safety and leading injury-free organizations, the more safety becomes a part of who we are and how we approach everything as leaders.

Most popular related searches

Related articles

In the design of the valve system, the following points need to be considered:
1. Control valve seal design. Single-seat valve can reach less than 1 drop per hour leakage. Double seat valve is difficult to close tightly. Therefore, the switching to a single seat valve must be an optional choice.
2. Large amounts of high-pressure fluid trapped between shut-off valves may present considerable force and serious personal injury may occur if the pressure in the control valve is re-drained carelessly.
3. Consideration...

Biological water treatment is essential because drinking contaminated water can cause illness. There are many types of contaminants, and the most common are human and animal feces, agricultural run-off, and chemicals. These contain pathogens, which cause water-borne diseases. These pathogens can quickly spread via different methods.
Here are some of the most common diseases that can be eliminated by biological drinking water treatment, and classified by the type of organisms that cause them.
Parasitic Diseases
P...

Perfection is an admirable goal but an unattainable standard. While you can’t completely eliminate workplace injuries, you can effectively reduce risk by following these safety tips that apply to any business or industry.
1. Maintain a Clean Workplace
Cleanliness is more than just a matter of eye appeal. Untidy workplaces can force employees to operate in a constricted space that doesn’t allow for free movement. In addition, clutter can cause obstacles that result in tripping, twisting and other...

What’s at Stake Some people can’t stand a mess, while others leave an evidence trail of poor housekeeping everywhere they go. But in the workplace, bad housekeeping can have consequences that go far beyond creating an image of a sloppily run, unprofessional operation.What’s the DangerPoor housekeeping causes a wide range of injuries and fatalities, ranging from painful slips, trips and falls, to workers being unable to evacuate burning buildings because of blocked fire exits, to dust explosions...

Safety is absolutely paramount in the medical industry, with lives literally at stake if something were o go wrong. Regrettably, this was more than reinforced recently following the tragic news of a death of a newborn at a hospital in Sydney, Australia, after it was mistakenly administered nitrous oxide (N2O) instead of oxygen (O2) in July this year.
A tragic occurrence of similar circumstance was literally the reason behind UK-based Bedfont Scientific’s establishment in 1976, with Chairman Trevor Smith...

Customer comments

No comments were found for Three Things that Change when You “Get” Safety. Be the first to comment!

Add your comment

Great! comment successfully added!

Contact

Your message:

Your email

Your first name

Your last name

I would like to receive periodic email updates and special offers from select suppliers.